Marshwood alumni to return for ‘Oliver!’

Friday

Nov 9, 2012 at 12:01 AM

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Michael Aldrich of Eliot was in 7th grade at Marshwood Junior High when he first appeared in Oliver!. After that he was in every district musical until he graduated in 2009. And this year, Aldrich will return from active duty in the Coast Guard to once more go on stage in Oliver! at Marshwood High School.

Aldrich, who is 21, is one of about two dozen alumni expected to return to their alma mater for Oliver! when it opens Nov. 9. Among those returning thespians, about half a dozen alumni, including Aldrich, will take the stage to sing and dance in “Oom Pah Pah.” The others will help with lights, sets, ushering and raffles.

“The district musical is a huge community builder,” said Aldrich, who helped director Tanya West gather the returning students for this year’s performance. “The show brings the entire community together and it’s something that should be celebrated.”

Director West decided to celebrate 10 years of musicals involving children from 8 to 18 by inviting alumni who had taken part in past district musicals to act in or help out with Oliver!, the same show she produced for the first district musical in 2003.

“I didn’t get involved until my senior year and it was a blast,” said Danielle Davis, who graduated in 2008 and works for Idexx Lab in Westbrook. “We created a little community that is still friends and it’s so nice to be back and be part of that again.” Davis is helping West as an off-stage assistant.

Last time Marshwood did Oliver!, the boy now playing Oliver was just learning to walk, the show’s poster was saved on a floppy disk and Ms. West was a new hire with no idea if these district-wide musicals would fly in this community.

In 2003, West was introducing the concept of a district musical to the school system. The audition for the first Oliver! drew about 50 students. This year more than 100 students tried out for the 60-person cast. Sixteen of those parts are filled by 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.

Nearly all of the district musical performances have a full house and dozens of members of the community now take part in everything from concessions and raffles to programs and publicity.

“It’s 100 percent different now,” said West, who has evolved into a seasoned director. “I’m totally different; the show is totally different; the kids are different and there’s different community involvement.”

For students who have taken part in most of the district musicals over a decade, the experience marks a coming of age.

“I remember some scenes with all the older kids and I was imagining what it might feel like to be a star and to have a big part,” said senior Chase Fisher, the only current student who was in the original Oliver! and who will be Mrs. Sowerberry in this year’s Oliver!.

“I so looked up to the big kids and thought it would be so cool to be like that. Now I have that part and there’s a bunch of little kids around.”

“It’s really good to have played all the roles, not like parts in the play, but roles like being in fourth grade and looking up to all those older kids and now being a role model for other younger kids,” agreed junior Julianna Burke, who has been in every musical since Cinderella in fourth grade.

“I remember when I first got called back to try out for JoJo in Seussical, I was like ‘What? What’s a callback,’” said Burke, reminiscing about her youthful naivete.

Returning alum remember well when Burke and Fisher were young, and are equally moved by the passage of time.

“The little kids who were in musicals have grown up,” said Cassie Robertson, who is studying English and writing at USM and was in Seussical, A Christmas Carol and Bye Bye Birdie before she graduated in 2009.

“It’s weird seeing Brynne (DuBois) and Julianna and Ryan Bulger all so old,” said Amber Cognato, Class of 2010, who is studying at York County Community College and performed in The Ragged Child and A Christmas Carol, and will be on stage in Oliver!

The Marshwood district musicals have run the gamut from silly to sad, from classic to obscure. The school district has performed Oliver!, The Music Man, Cinderella, Seussical, Bye Bye Birdie, A Christmas Carol, The Wizard of Oz, The Ragged Child, and The Jungle Book.

This year the part of Oliver is being played by Max Tullgren of South Berwick, a sixth grader who was toddling around when Marshwood first performed the play. In 2003, the part of Oliver was played by Tucker Leary, an eighth grader at the time who later went to Massachusetts College of Art and is now a photographer in Boston.

David Walters, an alum parent, whose daughters are both several years gone from the district musicals, is doing set design, while David Kaye, whose daughters Abby and Emily are in the show, will be overseeing the scenic art. Many parents, alumni and current students will help the team create the set. Bev Roy, another parent of a former thespian, Laura Roy, will do costumes as she has for several years with Sharon Hilton. Aimee Gigandet, Chase Fisher’s mom, has been assistant director for the shows for several years.

The alumni effort was coordinated by Aldrich, who created a Facebook group inviting Marshwood alumni of district musicals to join in this year’s show. The group now includes more than 50 former students.

The show opens Friday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m., with additional performances on Saturday, Nov. 10, Friday, Nov. 16, and Saturday, Nov. 17, also at 7 p.m. and with a matinee at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17. For more information, go to the Marshwood Musicals Facebook page. Tickets are available by calling 384-4500 or reserving on-line at http://marshwoodmusic.org/musicals.